Three public defenders have finished their first month in the new conflicts office, and they say they’re just finishing up their cases from their old office.
Chrystal Krier, Pam McLemore and Nika Cummings each brought about 60 cases with them when they moved into their new office in the historic Occidental Building at 2nd Street and Main. Fortunately, they only picked up 13 new cases in the first month, allowing them to clear their old files.
The three expect to get as many as 30 cases per month at the new office, which handles defendants too poor to hire their own lawyers, but whom the regional public defenders office can’t represent because of legal conflicts. These may include cases such as those with multiple defendants.
The office opened after Richard Ney, Brad Sylvester and Doug Adams stopped taking assignments from state court. They now work on private retainers.